Marine Drive cave-in: BMC repairs road, but will it last?

A day after a massive portion of the road caved in on Marine Drive outside Girgaum Chowpatty, the civic body worked on a war footing to repair it. However, even this time, the civic body used paver blocks, which have proved to be a bane for the city roads time and again.

While work on the southbound stretch was completed by yesterday evening itself, the pending work on the northbound stretch was over by eight in the night.

After: Paver blocks were used to fix the road, following which both sides were thrown open for motorists by 8 pm. Pic/Bipin Kokate

The BMC officials were asked to complete the repair work yesterday so that commuters would not experience ugly traffic snarls during peak hours today.

BMC workers worked round the clock to repair the part of Marine Drive that caved in on Saturday. However, their choice of equipment -- paver blocks -- begs the question, will it be able to bear the weight of traffic on one of the arterial roads of South Mumbai? If history is any indication, the answer is a resounding ‘No’. Pic/Bipin Kokate.

P R Masurkar, assistant municipal commissioner of D-ward, said that traffic movement on south and northbound stretches had attained normalcy yesterday. The water pipeline was repaired on Saturday, restoring water supply in the area.

An official said, “We were asked by the traffic department to complete the work today itself. The work of the divider will be done as well because people tend to cross the road directly in the absence of tall dividers, thus risking their lives as well as well that of the motorists.”